10 Perennial Seeds You Will Regret Not Sowing in October (Last Chance Before the Ground Freezes)

A one-gallon pot of coneflower costs twelve dollars, sometimes more. A packet of the same seed costs about three, and October is the best month of the year to put it in the ground. September was never your last chance. My name is Doris Kessler. To four hundred children a day in a Scioto County, Ohio, school kitchen, I was Mrs. Doris. My mother scattered her flower seed along the fence every fall out of a paper sack, and I still do it her way. A great many of our wildflowers have seed that will not sprout until it has spent a winter cold and wet in the ground. Sow in September and some come up too early and freeze. Sow now, as the dirt cools, and they wait for spring. 📍 TWO THINGS BEFORE YOU SOW: I left wild lupine and delphinium off on purpose. Lupine wants sandy, sour soil, and delphinium hates our hot, sticky summers. And mark every spot you sow with a stick and the name in pencil. In April, fall-sown seedlings look like weeds, and I once hoed out a whole packet. I am a retired school cook and a lifelong home gardener. Sowing times differ by county, so check with your local extension office or a native plant nursery near you. #FallGardening #NativePlants #OldFashioned